


She is Gotham

by Bionic_Egypt



Series: She is Gotham [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Gotham is a living person, I hate myself for it, I have No Excuse, I think I'm going to add to it though, No editing we die like mne, This is weird, because reasons, i wrote this in like half an hour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 22:26:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12263301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bionic_Egypt/pseuds/Bionic_Egypt
Summary: She is the darkest of all her sisters. She was here at the beginning, and she will be here at the end. Who is she? She is Gotham.





	She is Gotham

**Author's Note:**

> This is weird. Basically I had the idea "Hey, what if Gotham was a person?" And then I realized how similar that idea was to Hetalia. And then I abandoned it because I don't really like Hetalia anymore. And then I came back to the idea because fuck it, this isn't Hetalia. So I wrote this. Basically, the 'she' in this is Gotham personified. She knows everything that's ever happened in her city and everyone who is in it. She doesn't know what goes on outside her boundaries, though, which explains some things mentioned. Please excuse my weirdness and maybe enjoy She is Gotham.

She is the darkest of all her sisters. She has always reveled in the shadows, in the secrets of the night. She was there when the first buildings went up, when people of power and influence finally started bringing life to her.

 

She is twisted, sometimes cruel, but she cares for those in her domain. She will not hesitate to strike down those who deserve it, nor will she pause when those worthy need her help. Her battlegrounds are her streets, her army is her people, a civil war fought every night over her love. She protects them as best she can, but even she sometimes strikes out against her own when they harm the others.

 

She watches her protectors from the shadows even as they use them to hide. She remembers their start, as she remembers everyone's start. The man who dons the guise of a bat, the thing he feared now his mask of bravery. She remembers the moment his life was changed, remembers the feeling of his parents' bodies hitting her concrete streets, remembers hearing his cries as they died. She remembers a night many years later, the first night he took up his own personal crusade of justice.

 

She had not known what to make of him at first. She had been in a very dark place then, her people shrouded in the dark with no light of hope to guide them. She remembered wishing that he would be that beacon, that he might drag her out of the shadows just enough to clear her mind of hate.

 

She tried to help, really, she did. She kept the small ones away from the fires that left burns on her body, kept the innocent away from the fights that left scars on her skin. None of her sisters were as scarred as she, but she did not mind. She knew that for every scar, there were many more that had been stopped by her Bat.

 

She remembers when he started bringing in little birds. She does not know the origin of the first bird, as he belonged to no one before he belonged to her, but she knows enough now that she cares for him just as much as her people do, if not more.

 

Oh, how it nearly killed her to lose her first bird to her sister. How she wished to reveal herself to the Bat and demand he bring her bird home where he belonged. But after hearing from her sister how well he was doing on his own, she conceded that maybe it was time for her little bird to stretch his wings. After all, she gained another bird after her first left the nest.

 

She knew the origin of her second bird all too well. It was a story that many shared under her skies, though she wished there was something she could do to change it. She had tried, but the darkness within her could not be changed by her, but by them. And they had no wish to change. In this, she was as much a slave to them as they believed themselves to be of her.

 

But her second bird started to get better. She knew that he was overcoming his darkness, not completely, but enough to find a light that she desperately wanted him to spread amongst her people. She would have given anything for him to have spread his newfound light. But then her second little bird flew away. Only a shell returned, brought back in a wooden box and stuck underneath her ground.

 

She wanted to rip the Bat apart for letting him go. She wanted to join her darker citizens and destroy him, but she wouldn't. They had caused her too much harm, even if she shared many of their qualities by virtue of them being hers. And when one of them returned, his wicked smile hiding secrets that he only too gladly shared, she wished that the bat would ignore his rule and murder the clown. But she knew he wouldn't. And she herself could not destroy one of the people who shaped her.

 

She knew the story of her third bird as well. Poor child, left alone to wander her streets at night. Even before he had become a bird, she had followed his path closely. She kept him safe as he trailed after her Bat and his birds, smiling every time she saw him take a photo of them. She knew the precise moment he realized who they were, knew that someday he would be another one of her birds with a mind that bright. She just regretted how he became a bird instead of a shadow.

 

She knew the moment her second bird awoke that he would not remain with her long. Her streets did not have a place for him, not until he regained his sense of self. So she did nothing as that foreign woman who had an obsession with her Bat came onto her soil and snatched her second bird, knowing that one day he would return to her. And return to her he did. She smiled when she heard what he called himself upon his arrival; how clever to name himself after his enemy, a tactic meant to strike fear into others. It would be poetic, she thought, for him to use his killer's identity to kill him. She did nothing to stop him, though she very easily could have, nor did she reveal his identity to her Bat or his third bird. This was a secret they would have to learn on their own.

 

A fourth bird came under her wing. He was the blood of her Bat, but also of the woman who fixed her second bird. This little bird was the most like her, all rage and venom and lethalness, but with a dash of good and justice to just barely balance him. She loved her new bird, though she did not know his past. That had not mattered with her first, and it would not matter now.

 

She did not know the moment her Bat died. She only knew that her first little bird returned from her sister and donned his mask, took on the darkness despite the light he carried within him. She wanted so much to reveal herself to him then, to demand he retire the mantle of the Bat instead of taking it on for himself. She hated seeing her little bird look so strained, so worn.

 

When her first Bat returned, she once again almost revealed herself, if only to embrace him and demand he never leave her birds to fend for themselves again. They had nearly been destroyed by his absence, and no one had the right to harm her birds.

 

Her first bird, her second Bat, left for her sister once more after the first Bat's return. Her second bird refused to reconcile with her Bat, leaving them both saddened by the loss of family. Her third bird spent too much of his time away, off playing with others with a different sister of hers. But her fourth bird remained, as did her first Bat. They stayed with her as they tried to readjust to being together

 

She watches them now, smiling. They cling to her shadows, darting this way and that to apprehend the crime that soils her streets, leaping to and from the ledges of her buildings. She follows them, always just a few steps behind, listening to them in the way only she can. She feels every step they make, hear every word they say, sees every hit they take. She only hopes that this time, the bird and the Bat will remain together.

 

She is the darkest of all her sisters. She was here at the beginning, and she will be here at the end. She is here. She revels in shadows and thrives in the night. She is unforgiving and hard, but she also sees the light of hope every time that great signal shines in the sky. She knows of love and loss, especially loss, knows how every one of her citizens think and feel and believe. She feels rage and pain, but also love and joy. She loves her shadows and the heroes that reside in them. Who is she?

 

She is Gotham.


End file.
